Paramount Chief of Some Traditional Area Torgbiga Adamah III, has commended Ghana’s supreme court for recently affirming it’s decision to strike out some provisions in the Narcotics Control Commission (NCC) Act that allows for the cultivation of some kinds of Cannabis for medicinal and industrial purposes.
According to him, this decision of the apex court of the country goes a long way to show how committed our judicial system was in upholding the tenets of democracy and the rule of law.
Torgbiga Adamah said these in an interview with this reporter at Agbozume in the Ketu South Municipality of the Volta region, Friday.
He said, “whatever laws that are enacted by our Parliament, should fall within the remits of our constitution – I don’t think there is any law or rule or oder, that supercedes the constitution.
The Paramount Chief thinks Parliament erred in enacting the law on “wee” cultivation.
” In the first place, I think Parliament erred in formulating that law – does our constitution allow for the cultivation of that plant – and how do we ensure that the purpose for which that law was made is not defeated,” Torgbi Adamah questioned.
He said “what we should be looking at as a nation is not a law allowing or banning the cultivation of the plant, but how it’s cultivation or otherwise can benefit the country in terms of revenue generation for national development.
The Supreme Court has on Thursday, May. 25, in a majority 5-4 decision affirmed its view that the law allowing cultivation of weed in Ghana was unconstitutionally passed by Parliament.
The court in July 2022, struck out Section 43 of the Narcotics Control Commission Act, Act 1019.
This provision stipulated that “the Minister on the recommendation of the Commission, may grant a licence for the cultivation of cannabis popularly referred to as “wee” in Ghana, which is not more than 0.3 % THC content on a dry weight basis for industrial purposes for obtaining fibre or seed for medicinal purposes.”
However, the Apex court annulled this provision and declared that it is a violation of Article 106 of the 1992 constitution.
Presiding Judge, Justice Jones Dotse stated that the threshold a party ought to meet to enable it to review its own judgement has not been met.
